Thursday, 26 November 2009

A Steam-punk\Victorian Sci Fi mini campaign set out in the asteroid fields, which apparently are filled with independent Cornish miners and the fleets of the Great (and not so great) Powers which are trying to take over.

Asteroids are spread out at roughly two to three hex intervals, making a merchant\supply ship with your fleet essential if you need to hop quickly from one to another.

Builds are done at the end of each turn and use a mechanism similar to that used in a Ancient Greek naval campaign done long ago at the club. The better ships are harder to build (12+ for a Battleship) but get easier after each turn of failure. (plus one per turn)

Poor Spain nearly got knocked out early, becoming the victim of the first battle, and ended up with all their asteroids captured by others leaving only 'a ragtag fugitive fleet' of destroyers and merchants floating in neutral space. Maybe an idea for a TV series there. Unfortunately this gave the Italians a number of captured ships, including a battleship.

Everybody else is slowly heading towards the victory condition of 6 out of the available 19 asteroids. Matt moves his fleet into the same hex that I've just captured in an attempt to hold him off, having to give up one of my hexes to move there. It's an even fight, both of us having a Battleship, Fortified Cruiser and a Merchant, but some bad rolls for damage control doomed my ships after the first exchange of fire.

So the Italians end as the dominant force in the asteroid belt, which might make up for getting kicked around in Africa.¶